Midnight Club II

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We go online and hands-on with Rockstars racer and feel the need for speed.

By Aaron Boulding

PS2 fans have been enjoying the benefits of Midnight Club II online racing for sometime now. Rockstar's arcade street racer is still on the way to Xbox as well with Xbox Live head-to-head play to go along with all of that cool Rockstar style. MC2 has the market to itself on PS2 in many ways, but on Xbox it'll be going head to head against Microsoft's own online arcade racer Midtown Madness 3 when they both hit store shelves this June.

Rockstar San Diego developed Midnight Club II with the intent of making it one of the fastest racing experiences you can get on a the console. While it's claim to the throne are up for debate, the speed of MC2 is apparent right from the beginning. All of those MPHs would be for naught however if things slowed to a crawl once you went online through Xbox Live. We had a chance to get familiar with the online racing and battling components of Midnight Club II and came away impressed by the game's solid framerate and stutter-free Xbox Live racing.

So Many Ways

MC2 offers a ton of freedom once you've plowed through the game's main career mode. This is where you'll unlock new cities and vehicles while advancing the game's storyline of underground illegal street racing. The benefit here is that the ton of stuff you're opening up in the solo game will available to you online immediately. This is most important when you're talking about new cars because better vehicles are unlocked in order and you will need the top level rides to be competitive online. Just like we saw in MechAssault with the Ragnarok, opening up Midnight Club II's ultimate ride, the SLF450x (a spaceship with wheels really) will separate the veterans from the rookies online. You can even set de facto skill level requirements for online races by limiting what kind of cars can run in a race that you host. You don't want newbies cluttering up the track? Then just outlaw the newbie rides and you're home free.